In this section of the IMI Newsletter, we bring you reviews on the latest movies and music, industry gossip, parties and more. Bollywood & Hollywood. Keep visiting us here to read on more.
This edition SHAIL from The IMI Critics Panel brings you reviews on : -
Hollywood - I Am Legend (click to read on)
Bollywood - TAARE ZAMEEN PAR (click to read on)
If you're heading off to see 'I Am Legend' and expecting to see a rollicking thriller, gird yourself: This Will Smith vehicle is much closer in spirit to a grim and relentless horror movie like 28 Days Later than it is to Mad Max or Independence Day.
Playing the sole human left in New York City and quite possibly the only human survivor of a gruesome virus that turns men into flesh-eating creatures, Smith freezes his face into a mask of existential despair; he makes us feel his character's crippling isolation, as he roams through Manhattan with only a German shepherd named Sam as his companion. As for the vampiric zombies he's trying to avoid, they're screeching, pale-skinned beasts, eager to bite into anything that moves. We first encounter them in a shadowy office building, where they huddle like a football team about to make one last goal-line push , the scene is so nerve-jangling that you feel the immediate need to throw up.
All of which is to say that I Am Legend is at once tremendously accomplished and yet not much fun to endure. In order for horror movies to unnerve and excite us, they need to seem just plausible enough; they need to present a scenario as our worst nightmare and then let us wonder, "Could this really happen?"
But with its stark, remarkably detailed production design, featuring cars half-submerged in the East River and human bodies left to decay inside apartment buildings, I Am Legend offers a vision of the apocalypse that feels a bit too accurate. The movie is so intensely rendered that it goes beyond convincing you it just bums you out.
Through a series of flashbacks we learn how this turn of events came to be: In 2008, a British doctor (an uncredited Emma Thompson) claimed that she had cured cancer by using a strain of the measles virus to kill the cells. But that virus mutated and went airborne, resulting in the widespread zombiefication of the planet. Smith's Robert Neville was a military scientist who in the most harrowing of these flashbacks attempted to evacuate his wife (Salli Richardson) and daughter (Willow Smith, the star's real-life daughter) from the city before it was too late. Now all he's left with is his loyal dog, and the vague hope of finding a cure for the virus, which he tests by capturing zombies in the street and bringing them back to his lab in the basement of his Washington Square townhouse. (These creatures wither in the daylight, so they can only come out after sunset.)
Directed by Francis Lawrence, I Am Legend is eerily quiet and cold to the touch. We watch Neville cruise these empty streets, presumably searching for whatever food or medicine he can find, all the while hoping to avoid predators (a number of animals, including deer and lions, seem to have been infected with the virus). For long stretches of the movie, nothing seems to be happening. The paranoia and dread mounts, as Lawrence just keep tightening the screws: When and where will the zombies emerge next?
After spending more than an hour making us feel miserable, the movie introduces two new human characters (Alice Braga and Charlie Tahan), refugees from Sao Paolo who have heard that there is a colony of human survivors in Vermont.
But Lawrence's heart isn't in these scenes, and it shows. The final scenes feel rushed and unconvincing: Only in Hollywood could you push a main character to the brink of suicidal madness, kill all his family members and friends and yet somehow contrive a happy ending.
By all means, you should give I Am Legend a chance: This movie is nothing if not a vivid, sustained and gorgeously sinister vision of a world turned upside down. Just don't be surprised if, as the closing credits roll, you feel both depressed and unsatisfied.Director: Francis Lawrence
Actor: Will Smith
Rating: B (**1/2)IMI Critics Panel / (write to the critic - shailendrasalian@hotmail.com)
Taare Zameen Par
Dyslexia is a learning disability which manifests in different people differently. It’s a friction between the brain and the action it is just about to make. The cause is hereditary which is why one cannot help being dyslexic.
On face-value, TAARE ZAMEEN PAR looks like a kiddie film, but as the story unfolds, you realize that the story peeps into the mind and heart of a kid, his interests, his hobbies, his strengths and weaknesses. Aamir opens the cards at the very outset, when you realize that the kid is just not interested in books/studies.
Taare Zameen Par is about a child who suffers because no one around him conceded that he is a slow learner. The beauty of the narration is that the message applies to all children - learning disability or not. How can creativity not deserve a place in academics? It also points a very subtle finger at how we build conformation in our system right at the roots.
The pace of the first half gives you time to think of normal children who are just not academically inclined. The resolution in the second half, however, comes by too quickly compared to the trauma shown earlier. But, I guess, if the point is to show that difficulties can be overcome, you don’t necessarily want to show how difficult it is to overcome them.
Synopsis:
Ishaan Awasthi [Darsheel Safary] is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate; colors, fish, dogs and kites are just not important in the world of adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks and neatness. And Ishaan just cannot seem to get anything right in class.
When he gets into far more trouble than his parents can handle, he is packed off to a boarding school to 'be disciplined'. Things are no different at his new school and Ishaan has to contend with the added trauma of separation from his family.
One day a new art teacher bursts onto the scene, Ram Shankar Nikumbh [Aamir Khan], who infects the students with joy and optimism. He breaks all the rules of 'how things are done' by asking them to think, dream and imagine, and all the children respond with enthusiasm, all except Ishaan.
Nikumbh soon realizes that Ishaan is very unhappy and he sets out to discover why. With time, patience and care, he ultimately helps Ishaan find himself.
Aamir takes the courageous stand of placing the story on Ishaan's shoulders right through the first hour and not once do you feel that the kid doesn't have the power to keep your attention arrested.
The second hour is equally challenging and most importantly, motivating. The introduction of Aamir's character, Aamir spotting the indolent Ishaan, Aamir traveling to Mumbai to meet Ishaan's parents and then citing examples of extra-ordinary men who were ridiculed by their contemporaries/peers, these moments linger in your memory even after the show has concluded.
The movie is not without it share of flaws. Yes, that dash of seemingly inevitable melodrama exists. The side-characters transform for no apparent reason. The climax is exaggerated and is as unrealistic as it could get. However, the aim is to show not reality of life but reality of the condition that this child suffers from. Once you get that, you will be at peace while watching this movie. And anyway, most of this is towards the end, by which time you are willing to forgive. Because, above all else, it makes you think.
Acting:
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR belongs to Master Darsheel Safary. Darsheel Safary as Eshaan Awasthi is very impressive. The mischief in his eyes and a determination to throw back at the world the same shit that he experiences is awesome and at times heart wrenching.
Tisca Chopra as Eshaan’s mum has done a commendable job. A very controlled and convincing portrayal.
Despite being a superstar and the director, Aamir doesn’t over expose his character and thereby remains faithful to the story at hand.Direction:
Aamir Khan deserves distinction marks for extracting an exemplary performance from the kid and handling the plot with supreme sensitivity. In his debut film itself, Aamir proves that he's a gifted storyteller. Aamir makes good use of animation, which in turn interprets a young mind’s imagination.Music: Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca, Shankar Mahadevan
Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi
The songs contribute to the narrative. The lyrics are sheer poetry. I know, that’s what they are supposed to be, but can’t remember the last time lyrics brought me to tears. “mein kabhi batlaata nahi” kept me speechless (and we all know how difficult that is!). And rock-style guitar strumming to a kids’ song - that’s what I call creative.
Taare Zameen Par
Director: Aamir Khan
Actors: Aamir Khan, Darsheel Safary
Rating: A- (***1/2)
IMI Critics Panel / (write to the critic - shailendrasalian@hotmail.com)
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